CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIP

October 26, 2006

Jim Thorpe

THE MODERATOR: Jim, maybe get us started. 6 under. Good start. Right now looks like you got a 2 shot lead going after today, right now.

JIM THORPE: I think two shots would be good into the Sunday round, but we have a lot of golf to go. The golf course is in great condition. Got off to a very quick start. Had about a 70 yard second shot on No. 2 for eagle. That got things going.

Then, you know, playing with a guy like John Morrison you have to play well. That's a guy that will leave you in the dust. We both played well. Tom picked up a couple of bogeys and I picked up a couple of more I think the front nine I had four birdies and one eagle. You know, that was pretty solid.

We must have I made a nice putt on 10, 11, 12.

I made a great up and down on 14 for par.

Great up and down on 16 for par. Made it from just off the back of the green. I hit my tee shot in the rough, second shot in the rough, third shot in the rough, and then chipped it over the green. So I was going for a big number there and got lucky and made a nice twenty footer for par there.

17, I hit a very nice 8 iron shot. Shot about 8,9,10 feet right of the flag there.

And Tom had just probably a 12, 13 foot putt from the left side, and I was on the right side. I got a perfect read off his putt. He missed it low. I keep my eyes on that read.

18, I hit a very nice tee shot. Just hit it a little too far. The tree kind of blocked me out, so I was trying to go over the tree on kind of the down slope on the side of the green. We had a very good birdie putt. We hit it straight in. It broke a little left.

But I hit the ball very well today. Been working hard on my tempo. I think that's the key to me playing well. I haven't done it all year. But I shouldn't say that, because any time you manage to get here for the Charles Schwab means you had a pretty decent season.

But there's a lot of golf left out there. Golf course is in great shape. You got the Top 30 money winners here this week. Probably the top 29 I don't think Peter Jacobsen is playing. All these guys are great players, and they are here because they played well the whole year.

So I know any given day they can go out there and take it low. So like Tom and I said, we got to put the ball on anywhere between 3 to 5 under par every day if we want to have a shot on Sunday. That's basically what we want to do: Have a shot on Sunday going into the last nine holes.

It would be great to tee off with a 5 or 6 shot lead going into the last nine holes. But if you're someplace around the leaders, the golf course is in such good condition if you keep the ball on the fairway, the golf course will give you some birdies.

But if you missed it by a ways, you're going to struggle. Tom and I missed a few, and we just couldn't get close enough to the green from there.

THE MODERATOR: Jim, what was on No. 2 what did you hit for your second, or third?

JIM THORPE: Just a little lob wedge from about 70 yards. Couple a skips and it kind of spun back to the right a little bit into the hole.

THE MODERATOR: And then on 5 and 6 you had back to back birdies.

JIM THORPE: Probably hit a beautiful little 9 iron shot from about 141 to 200 yards. Actually a little bit long there, about 15, 18 feet behind the flag. I practiced that putt yesterday in the Pro Am, which I knew it was lightening fast.

Just got a perfect read on that today and executed.

6, the pin was up front there. Hit 102 to the flag. Hit a sand wedge that kind of landed maybe just short of the green and stayed about a foot short. But there was another putt that I practiced on Tuesday, and I knew the putt was going to go right in if I got the right speed, and I made that birdie.

Q. How far was that?

JIM THORPE: I'm going to say twenty feet. The pin was 6 on, and I was probably about a foot short, so 19 feet.

7, we got a long the group before us was walking off the tee. You get off the rhythm a little bit when you stand there for 8, 10 minutes waiting, you know what I mean? Try to hit a utility club, you try to chase it to the back of the green. The pin was a ways back. But I hit a great bunker shot there about 4 feet under the hole, which was perfect. Unfortunately that putt was a little bit slower and a little bit more right than I shot. I kind of hit a weak putt there.

Back over the next hole, I hit a beautiful little birdie putt from about 10 feet. Made that. Up and down from the bunker.

And 9, I just hit three perfect shots on 9. Couldn't have been better. Nice drive, nice wedge.

10 was probably one of the best shots I hit all day. Took a big bounce on me and I kind of hit a weak putt. And other than that, I guess probably through the 13th hole it was pretty solid.

Then 14, the par 3, we waited again. I just blocked to the right and hit a great bunker shot from about 30 yards. Hit it maybe fifteen, 18 inches. That was a great shot there.

Hit a bad tee shot on 15. Basically what happened there, you just get caught up. I mean, you just made birdie and then you're 6 under par or something and one of the things out there on the golf course, I play pretty quick anyway.

I had no idea that the group in front of me was down behind the trees there. Nobody never said a word. That's one of those holes where you wish you would have waited a little bit and get your routine again.

When this golf course is playing firm with this much rough, I mean, it's a premium to put the ball on the fairway. Tom missed the fairway to the left there and had absolutely no shot to get it from to the green from probably 150 yards.

So far I missed it the (indiscernible). Unfortunately I had a couple trees in my way.

16, I hit a bad drive in the rough. 130 yards from the flag there. Couldn't get enough club on it to get to the fairway. You miss the fairways here you're going to pay the penalty.

The players are good enough, and we know that any player here on the any given day can take it low. And today was just a perfect day to play. No wind. Greens was holding very, very nicely. Fairways got a little firm so the tee ball is going 12, 15 yards lower.

I think the scores are going to be lower if the greens play this way tomorrow. You know, somebody is definitely going make a run before the week is out.

Q. Jim, you've had pretty good success here and in Napa. Do you kind of start in a pretty good frame of mind just based on the (inaudible)

JIM THORPE: Well, just because I like bent poana greens. I think here we have pretty close to the same greens that we have over at Napa. I've always played well on the west coast for some reason, and I think it's because I choose to call them pretty much poana greens, and I think they're the best greens in the world when they're rolling smoothly, you know.

To me, when you read a putt breaking left, 9 times out of 10 it's going left. You don't get no surprises. I think one thing that we figured out here very, very quickly is the ball wanted to run toward the bay. Is there such a thing as running towards the the putts are much faster I want to say southeast; is that right? Close enough. But anyway, it's going to be much faster.

Like I had a putt on No. 11 from about 13 12, I'm sorry. Had a birdie putt on 12. Hit a little 9 iron. Pretty good shot about the length of this table. I said to Tom, and I says, We just got to put it up there and dive it in.

And then once I looked at the putt on the other side of the cup, it made no difference whether I dived the putt in or tried to make it. Either way, the putt is going probably or six feet. And hit a beautiful putt just barely missed the hole , and there it goes 5 or 6 feet. Got lucky enough to make the second one.

And even Tom had a shorter birdie putt than I had from the opposite side of the hole, little bit long. I thought he hit a beautiful putt, and it ended up going 3, 4 feet past the hole.

Have to be careful with the downhill putts. It was a lot of fun for us. Of course, we all wanted to make birdies and play well. But I'll say this: We play a lot of great venues, but this is probably the best golf course we play all year long, I think we play all year long.

This is the golf course that makes you hit everything in your golf bag. If you come in not playing well, believe me it will eat you up. But if you come here playing well you can make a lot of birdies on this golf course. That's one of the things I like about it.

The Par 3s today I thought played very difficult. We played 1, 2, 3, Par 3s over 200 yards. It's very, very difficult.

17, starting 144 yards or so. It's was the only Par 3 that we really felt that we could pinpoint something and make birdie there. But I don't know them offhand, but both Par 3s in the front, they both played at 200 yards. I think that was 14. Is that a Par 3?

THE MODERATOR: Yeah.

JIM THORPE: So you know what I mean? It's a perfect test of golf. That's why you see guys like Watson winning here. I think Thomas won here a couple times. Did Tom Kurt (phonetic)win here? All the great players win here. It's a perfect golf course for guys that drive the ball well and putt it good.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JIM THORPE: Yeah. Well, I personally like the golf course. Any golf course you like makes you play well, for some reason. It looks good to me off the tee. I'm smart enough and old enough now you know, like on 18, I remember twenty years ago hitting a pitching wedge 110 yards on No. 18.

Today, once I seen where I had the ball down the slope in the middle of the fairway, with the tree there, I said just put it out 20 feet left of the tree. If it turns left it turns; if not take your par and go. You hate to go out there and play that well with a bogey. I really thought I had a pretty good shot to make it there, but it's a golf course that it's a funny thing. You couldn't in the Pro Am if the golf course had played today like it did yesterday, no one would be under par.

The wind blew very, very hard yesterday. Couldn't stop too many shots on the green. I made a statement to Tom Watson my amateur team yesterday, every hole we were chipping golf balls, you know. The rough is very thick. Yesterday I had big guys that just could not get it out of the rough with short clubs. We even talked about hitting wedges back to the fairway. And it just they just got the golf course in tournament condition.

Q. What's your best memory of that win here?

JIM THORPE: The year that I won it?

Q. Yeah.

JIM THORPE: Let me see if I can think. Yeah, it was 67 feet.

THE MODERATOR: It was a 67 foot putt off the green.

JIM THORPE: I do remember them saying that it was 67 feet. Yeah, you know what I mean it was wishing it to go in. I remember playing with Tom Watson on that Sunday, and

Q. (Inaudible.)

JIM THORPE: Yep. And I might have had a one shot lead coming in there. Tom made a nice birdie putt after I made the eagle. The eagle putt on 16 was big, but I think the putt on 17 was even bigger. I knew I could make some mistakes on 18 and still win the golf tournament.

Q. How close was the putt on 17?

JIM THORPE: Three years ago or this year?

Q. Three years ago.

JIM THORPE: Probably about the same distance as today: 10, 12 feet, in that area. It was just one of those putts where you walk up and I seen the line. If I just sat there and stroked it I could make it. It just went dead center of the hole. Let me just say that all the guys that play the Champions Tour are great players. We enjoy playing each other.

I think for a guy like me to get paired with Tom Watson, who has one 39 times on the PGA Tour and 8 majors and 8 times on the Champions Tour with 8 majors it seems to elevate your game. It makes you go out there and makes you want to play hard. Because if he gets it going you know he can take it low.

I think he shot 64 here on Sunday last year. I think that's the thing about this golf course. I think Jay Haas teed off with a big lead last year and Watson ran him down. And Jay didn't play a bad round.

So this is the type of golf course, if you get it going and get the momentum going your way, then you can make a ton of birdies. But if you're struggling and I think the real key to this golf course one and two are not that tough. But there's a stretch of holes, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, I think they're very tough holes. That are very tough holes. I think they're very tough holes.

So somewhere you need to get under par especially not over par when you're approaching these holes. Because driving the ball, you know, basically what happens when you start missing a couple fairways from the rough you start to steer the ball a little bit. I caught myself doing that a little bit today. Tony said, You need to release it down the line.

18, I drove it absolutely perfect. But I knew on 16 when I missed that fairway I gave up a big birdie opportunity, because the hole was reachable today. For a guy that hits the ball as far as I hit it, the Par 5s I have to out it on the fairway. If I can out it on the fairway I can birdie the Par 5s. I think I played them 2, 4 under par.

And so, you know, for me I got when I missed the fairway on the Par 5 I put myself in a position almost where I know I am giving up the stroke almost to the field.

Q. Does a course like this which has long, straight, tough holes, does it bring back memories of an earlier time in your career and other players' careers the way golf used to be played without the doglegs and the undulated fairways and things like that. Is this more of a traditional golf course?

JIM THORPE: No doubt about it. Even if the young guys came here, as far as they hit the ball today, if they came and hit the ball like this, where you have to play under the pin. Then you grab a hole like No. 11 up to here, where you have the lower and the top plateau, you have to play to the lower plateau when the pin is up down, and you have to play up top when the pin in up top. And even with the there are great players, but this is an old, traditional golf course where you still need to shape the ball, you know, and put the ball on the fairways in order to go down and shoot good numbers.

Any shot on this golf course where you've hitting back down the hill a little bit, there's no such thing as lagging. Whether you try to make it lag or if you miss it, it's going 4 5, 6 feet. We had a couple that did that.

The par putt I made on 16, if it don't go in the hole, I swear I got a 10, 12 footer coming back. And I think you get a putt like the one I had on 18 I think it's a very makeable putt, but just watching Tom going 5 or six feet past the hole, so I I'm thinking, thank God. I hit my putt and I know I hit it solid.

And I guess it went about 12, 13 inches past the hole. Looked like one of them putts was barely going to get there. So it's a golf course where I think we need to go back to playing again. I think we play too many where the guys just plug the driver and hit it hard and don't care where it go. Hit it from the rough and make birdies. This golf course you can't do that. You have to play with your head. You have to play ever shot. You can't stand on No. 2 worrying about playing No. 8 or a hole like No. 9 which should be birdie holes for us.

Give you a good example. No. 10, today, I had 110 yards and Tom was couldn't have been more than 2, 3 yards behind me. It was just a tough wedge shot. Very difficult. Had it on the left front. And we knew if we drop it short it's not going to get on the green. If we get on the green, it's going to take a big bounce and go twenty feet past the hole. So you're caught between a rock and a hard place. That's where you just have to suck it up and say, par is a pretty good score here.

Q. You mention you elevate your game when you play with Watson. You seem like you get going very well. Is he the kind of guy that just has that affect on you, that magnetism?

JIM THORPE: Anybody that don't get along with Tom Watson, just don't like genuine people. Tom doesn't bite his tongue. I think Tom has a total of 12 majors. I mean, you don't win these things unless your rock solid. Tom is the type of guy, when you're playing well he let's you know. Good shot. That's nice to hear coming from a guy like Tom.

And you know, a few years ago back, in '03, coming into the 18 hole, he was behind me and let me take it by myself. You know, Jimmy, this is for you. You earned it. I mean, to me that's very, very special. You know, I mean, he's been there. He knows what that's like. He knows it's tough to win.

When you get lucky enough to win and compete with those guys it's just a feather in your cap. Those guys are the world's best. To go out there and play with them and get lucky enough to beat them two out of fifteen times is a feather in your cap, because, you know, you're competing against the best that ever did it.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JIM THORPE: I had a tough putt for bogey. There's no doubt in my mind. But sometimes and plus if I get I guess because it's the first round it really didn't bother me that much. I drove the ball pretty solid all day long. I think I only missed one fairway all day, maybe two.

It's just one of those tee shots I wanted to hit it hard and drill it and get it down the fairway. You know, I was willing once I seen the first lie I was willing to take par. Then after I seen the second lie I thought then after I seen the third lie, I said, let me just take bogey and go.

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